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About Me

I am a recent graduate of John Willis' lab. There I worked primarily on the genetics of floral pigment patterning in a group of monkeyflowers (Mimulus) from the foothills of the Chilean Andes. I am now beginning a post doc at the University of Michigan, in Trisha Wittkopp's lab. I am still studying the evolution of color patterning, but in a rather different system:

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My Graduate Research

Mimulus luteus var. luteus, M. l. variegatus, M. naiandinus and M. cupreus are four closely related members of the genus Mimulus that differ dramatically in the distribution of a red anthocyanin pigment, cyanidin, in their floral tissues (Fig. 1). This pattern variation is phylogenetically unique: the study taxa belong to a large monophyletic group in which virtually all of the other ~40 species have remarkably constant corolla pigmentation (yellow with red spots along the throat). My thesis has focused on the following questions:

Is there evidence of pollinator-mediated reproductive isolation among floral types?

Are pigment patterning differences, both within and between species, simple or quantitative?

What is the identity of the pigment patterning genes?

Are the functional changes structural or regulatory?

Is there evidence of convergent evolution (are distinct genetic mechanisms responsible for similar phenotypes)?